The inverse proportion between difficulty of studies and joy for the result

The other day I was enjoying a nice ginger and lemon herbal tea, sitting at a table in my usual bar, in the marvelous old square, in Bergamo: I looked like something out of a Wodehouse page, plus the sun and a very blue sky, who dream of it in Shropshire.
All of a sudden, this Elysian atmosphere was interrupted by the explosion of firecrackers, bullying shouts and stadium chants.
Much less would be enough to unleash the demon slumbering in me: so I got up to see what this carnival out of time was due to, ready to do battle, if necessary, with the troublemakers on duty.
I saw a mismatched group of youths with, in the center, a little girl, dressed like the pilgrim Madonna and wearing a kind of slightly oversized laurel wreath on her head.
As a scepter, he held a cheap bottle of sparkling wine, with which, between one sip and another, he sprinkled his associates.
I understood, only then, that it was a matter of a graduation party or, better, a public prologue to the actual party, which, I imagine, would be held in the evening, in some suitable place.
I draw the cue from it, for a comment of mine, vaguely acidulous, on the difference between innovation and decadence in certain, shall we say, academic customs.

The innovation of a school without… an exam, but with more maturity

The dividing line between an evolution and an involution is tragic and very topical

This, since the theme of the distinction between an evolution and an involution, given the times, is very topical.
And here it seems to me that we should speak of involution: involution with two faces, moreover.
The first face is that of the seriousness of some qualifications: it seems to me significant that, due to a significant decline in the level of preparation of recent graduates and the difficulty of the degree course, corresponds to a wholly disproportionate and decidedly not sober emphasis on success.
In short, once upon a time, graduation was a very serious and often very selective thing: today they graduate, pardon, dogs and pigs, with credits and exam fragmentation, ratings and ease.
And, when the coveted goal was reached, it was done with joy, but also with composure: at most, the ceremony was attended by the parents or the fiancée, with the customary photos.
When I graduated, however, neither one nor the other showed up: those were times like this.
In short, "mons peperit murem" would be like saying: much ado about nothing.

In Bologna, at school and at work, people still go to Ducati and Lamborghini

The irresistible desire to appear, to share, to popularize anything

The second face concerns this eagerness to appear, to share, to popularize anything: once upon a time, poets like Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Ariosto, Tasso graduated. Not Bonvesin de la Riva or Leonardo Giustinian.
Instead, these kids, who write "on the other hand" (atUniversity of Bergamo), they crown themselves: they self-celebrate, after eighty pages of theses on the most peregrine and laughable topics, believing themselves the masters of the world and of knowledge.
A generation of underprivileged people, full of complexes, but who believe they are geniuses because a gas-operated university has congratulated them with the merriest of accolades.
And they uncork prosecco and sing their balenghi choirs, while the orchestra of the Titanic plays a polka and the colossus sinks bow.
And this would be the evolution? Is this the innovation? But not even by dream: evolution, innovation, arise from seriousness and commitment, which, step by step, change the world.
This is simply barbarism: to ignore the rudiments of civilization is not to be free, but to be a troglodyte.

How to learn to swim in the agitated sea of ​​new technologies

An awkward teaching class and self-referential and overprotective families

It's not all their fault, mind you: they give these amazing third-rate students a big hand teacher class embarrassing and self-referential and overprotective families.
Parents who think they have given birth to a Leonardo da Vinci, if the child does not remedy solemn failures and gets away with shoving, until the longed-for final triumph.
And the thing, daughter of the claims to glory of mediocre families, is even transferring to high school: the favorable outcome of the final exams, or rather of the most ridiculous and banal of tests, in which, to fail, you really have to put yourself in it commitment, is celebrated with rituals very similar to university ones, including wine ablution.
Thus, we sink into nothingness: we raise the mere appearance to the sky and lose sight of the substantial values.
And this is decadence: it is absolute devolution.
Not to mention that they sent me an excellent herbal tea by the way, these Bedouins!

Innovation is not to oppose technical and humanistic culture